February 2010 Archive

SUNDAY AM: It’s a dull pre-Oscar weekend at the North American box office with only two major releases are genres fighting each other for No. 2. There were better than expected grosses considering the East Coast was slapped with another harsh snowstorm. Otherwise, there’s not much to say. Holdover Shutter Island, the Marty Scorsese/Leo DiCaprio psychological thriller from Paramount, will easily stay No. 1 again with just a 41% drop from a week ago. It made $6.7M Friday… Read

LOS ANGELES, February 27, 2010–Christian Berger, AAC, Alar Kivilo, ASC, CSC and Eagle Egilsson claimed top honors in the three competitive categories at the 24th Annual American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Outstanding Achievement Awards celebration here tonight at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel.
Berger won the feature film competition for The White Ribbon. Egilsson earned top accolades in the episodic category for Dark Blue (“Venice Kings”). Kivilo was the… Read

LOS ANGELES AND NEW YORK (Feb. 27, 2010) — The National Board of Directors of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), a national union of more than more 70,000 performers, journalists, broadcasters, recording artists and other talent working in the entertainment and news media, met today by videoconference plenary in Los Angeles and New York.
The AFTRA National Board unanimously voted to approve a recommendation by a subcommittee of the AFTRA… Read

Anika Noni Rose and Hill Harper hosted the 41ST NAACP IMAGE AWARDS, which was broadcast live from Los Angeles' historic Shrine Auditorium tonight on FOX. The star-studded event was executive-produced by Vicangelo Bulluck. Celebrated were the accomplishments of people of color working in the fields of literature, music, television and film. Special honors were presented to Tyler Perry who received the NAACP Chairman's Award, Wyclef Jean who received the NAACP Vanguard… Read

Documentary filmmaker RJ Cutler, who directed the Anna Wintour/Vogue profile The September Issue, is heading from high fashion to the Hamptons social swirl. Cutler successfully pitched Warner Bros on the feature film Au Pairs, an adaptation of the Melissa de la Cruz novel about three teenage girls from different socioeconomic backgrounds who work as nannies for a wealthy family in the Hamptons one summer. The girls balance their domestic duties with their suddenly… Read

Oy, now there’s even more about Oscar badmouthing, and this is even more unimportant. I’ve learned that Hurt Locker financier and producer Nicolas Chartier today admitted to Summit Entertainment he sent more emails about Avatar. But these weren’t mass mailings to Oscar voters; rather, they were simply individual messages sent to personal acquaintances, including one that specifically said Avatar should be placed No. 10 on the Best Pictures list. Sources tell me that… Read

EXCLUSIVE: I've learned that Summit Entertainment has acquired domestic distribution rights for The Three Musketeers, a 3-D period adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel that will be directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Constantin Films and Impact Pictures are producing a film that will be shot in "real 3-D." The action will be shot in Babelsberg Studios in Germany, and on location in France. The late summer start gives Anderson a decided advantage over a rival film based on… Read

From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: You wait ages for one cozy class-bound drama to come along again, and then two come along at the same time. Bit like London buses really. The BBC this week announced it has signed a deal with PBS to remake that classic ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs, which told the story of the aristocratic Bellamy family and their staff and stayed a huge Sunday night hit for ITV in the 1970s. PBS’ Masterpiece Theater had a good run with it in the… Read

From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: There’s a great scoop in this morning’s Times of London but it’s bad news for American television producers: the BBC could have 1/3 less to spend on importing Hollywood TV shows such as Mad Men and Heroes. That’s because the BBC Trust, the corporation's governing body, is to try and push BBC boss Mark Thompson into slashing his £100 million U.S. acquisition budget by 33%. Current plans call for the state broadcaster to cut its foreign…Read

Some snarkster sent this to me a few days ago. I think it deserves equal time since Nicolas Chartier’s email has gotten so much publicity:
From: Jake Sully
I hope all is well with you. I just wanted to write you and say I hope you liked Avatar and if you did and want us to win, please tell (name deleted) and your friends who vote for the Oscars, tell actors, directors, crew members, art directors, special effects people, if everyone tells one or two of their friends, we… Read